Innovative School Leadership

The Center for Artistry and Scholarship supports, inspires, and connects creative leaders of innovative schools in three ways: The Perrone-Sizer Institute for Creative Leadership, the Design Fellows network, and the Innovative School Design Incubator.

The Perrone-Sizer Institute for Creative Leadership

The Perrone-Sizer Institute for Creative Leadership (PSI) certificate program develops creative, innovative, and adaptive leaders who integrate educational, artistic, and community-based resources to transform the lives of youth and families from diverse backgrounds. With a design thinking approach to leadership development, PSI immerses leaders in school settings and community-based organizations. Participation in PSI can also lead to principal licensure and/or graduate credits at the University of Massachusetts Boston. PSI’s second student cohort began its work in August 2017.

Design Fellows Network

CAS is home to the Design Fellows network started in September 2017 to convene, support, and share insights from emerging leaders and school designers who are creating and launching innovative new school models that emphatically prioritize student creativity, engagement, and achievement. The Design Fellows network includes diverse participants from the Boston area who are at various stages of the design process seeking resources and support for key issues including developing mission and vision, governance, finding space, commitment to equity, team- and capacity-building, partnership development, fundraising, and family/community engagement. The Design Fellows network will also form collaborations with other school design networks to share insights and practices nationwide.

Innovative School Design Incubator

Supported by The Boston Foundation, the Innovative School Design Incubator funds and assists school design teams to create, finalize, and/or launch new schools that celebrate creativity and the arts. School designers who participate in the Innovative School Design Incubator develop proposals describing their innovative school visions, and then share their school designs with districts and other organizations within the greater Boston region in order to move toward implementation. Working with the Innovative School Design Incubator participants, CAS will also create a playbook documenting the school design process in order to promote school innovation throughout Massachusetts. The first cohort of the Innovative School Incubator launched its work in September 2017.